Do flea collars work?

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I still have (4) adult cats that stay outside all the time. I can handle (3) of them but the other one won't even let me get close to her. They're scratching quite often so I'm thinking that it's most likely fleas, although when i examine the hair/skin of the (3) I can handle, I really don't see any. Anyway I thought perhaps if I bought some flea collars and put them on the (3) it would give me a good indication if it's a flea problem or not. But do they work? Especially on cats that stay outside all the time?

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They do work sometimes but you always take the chance that they will be unstable and end up causing hair loss and poisoning your cats. Its a chance you take. If you do buy some, at least try to get name brand.
The better choice would be drops. Once again, name brand otherwise you have a chance of poisoning. There are also other natural options, like herbal collars and some kind of dirt you sprinkle around. I cant remember what its called.
As for the cat that doesn't like to be held, you could try swaddling him/her in a towel to give you a chance tolook for fleas/put on drops. Im sure there are youtube videos out there that can show you how.
:-)

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I would never use or recommend the flea collars, hun. They don't work well and have the potential to make cats sick, IMO. Better off using the spot on treatments from the vet. In the past when I had a problem with fleas, I put a flea collar in the vacuum bags as that works on any fleas you vacuum up!!!!!

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For feral cats you can't approach or handle, I recommend using Capstar (by Novartis). Just add it to food, an individual bowl and capsule mixed in the food per animal, so you're sure they each eat their appropriate portion. http://www.capstarpet.com/dogsAndCats/q-a.htm

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Several years ago my vet told me not to use flea collars. He said it might kill fleas at the head, neck but the fleas on them would more than likely run to the cats rear end. Basically you wouldnt solve anything.

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I’m sure you already know not to put a flea collar on your cat, but let me tell you a story. I’m camping at a friend’s (we’ll call her “A”) with my mom, and we were having a good time, sitting around the table, chatting. A’s daughter (let’s call her “B”) goes to feed their one cat they have in the shed, and next thing you know, we see her running back, panicking, saying “Oh my god Junior’s neck it’s f***ing ripped open her flea collar it ripped her neck open!” She was just completely overwhelmed. She grabbed some scissors and I followed her back to the shed. This flea collar was a disgusting shade of brown, it was sticky and gross, and this poor cat had skin and fur hanging from one side of her neck. B cuts the collar off and we bring Junior into the house to figure something out. Mind you, it’s 8:30 on a Friday night, so the vet is not an option. I ask how long she’s had this collar on, B tells me she put it on a week ago, and this is the first time she’s been the one to feed Junior since then. I get a better look, and this collar ate through Junior’s epidermis, so all you could see was muscle on the underside of her neck. We were all gathered in the kitchen, I had grabbed all of our first aid supplies from our camper, and we were working on calming her down. Finally, after she bit the hanging flap of skin off, she was mellow enough for us to bandage her. I dabbed an iodine pad around the wound, and my mother put a gauze pad with ointment slathered on it, wrapped some gauze around it, then sticky bandage. We made sure she could breathe comfortably and open and close her mouth, and once she got used to it, we put her up in the bathroom with her food/water/etc. to rest. So far, it’s been a couple hours, and she hasn’t scratched at it or ripped it off. So, A is going to bring her to the vet on Monday to get her checked out completely. We don’t know what happened. If the collar was expired and that’s why it was sticky, or if it was supposed to be like that and it started to give her chemical burns, so she started to scratch at it and it tore through the skin and burned her even more? Either way, it’s infuriating. Please, I beg you, don’t buy a flea collar for any of your pets. Use frontline, or something prescribed. It’s not worth the vet bill you’ll be footing when your cat becomes sick.